Talk On, Talk Out
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1214b: Left at home with Rachel's daughter, Chloe confides in her the reasons why she'd run away to New York. - Red series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 57th cycle. Now cycle 58!_

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_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"Talk On, Talk Out"  
(Rachel &) Chloe (OC), Sophie (OC)  
Red series  
_(no listing yet, sequel to "Pinch Me")_  
**

When Chloe awoke, it took her a moment to remember that the white ceiling she was looking at was not the white ceiling in her bedroom in Indiana, but the one in her bedroom in New York, in the home of her idol, Rachel Berry, her host for the summer while she would attend her workshop. She knew she wanted to play it cool, but for one moment at least she had allowed herself a squeal buried in her pillow.

As she had been advised the night before, Rachel wasn't there when she'd wandered out of her bedroom and down into the kitchen. But there was Sophie, her daughter. She was sitting at the table, having breakfast and watching the news. When she saw Chloe was up, she stood. "Hey, there you are. Hungry?" she asked, and when Chloe nodded, she moved to get her a plate, coffee… Once she was all set, Sophie sat back down and they ate.

"So you're… in school?" Chloe had ended up asking, unsure what else to say yet.

"Not anymore, I just finished my last year, graduation's in a few weeks," she explained proudly.

"Oh," Chloe smiled. "That's nice," she told her. "Did you… I mean, are you looking to be on Broadway, too, or anything…" she asked.

"Like my mom?" Sophie finished for her, then shook her head. "No," she laughed. "Architecture," she revealed. "Between you and me, I think she might have hoped I would, and I used to, when I was younger, but then I found what I really wanted to do, crushed my mother's hopes… Okay, not really, but she plays it for dramatics sometimes, to make me laugh. 'But Sophie, you were such a good dancer,' or 'We could have done a duet, think of the tears!'" she imitated her, and it made Chloe laugh. "See, that's my mother. Queen of the weirdoes." Chloe smiled at this. "What about your parents, is this a family affair for you, too?"

"Oh… no…" Chloe's eyes turned to her plate with a shy smile. "My dad works at the bank, and my mother is a librarian." There was something odd about the reply as a whole, and Sophie had caught on to it, which Chloe noticed. "Hang on," she had told her before running up to her room for a moment. When she got back, she carried a notebook. Sophie's mother had told her about a notebook Chloe had carried around so protectively, and looking at her, she could guess that this was it. She was silent for a moment, then she opened the book, flipping through the pages full of handwriting and drawings until she found a folded up news clipping. She unfolded it and showed it to Sophie. She pointed to one man in the background of the picture. "That's my father." Sophie squinted.

"Wait, if that's your dad, who's the guy I saw yesterday with your mom?"

"That's my stepdad, but he and my mom have been together since I was like two years old, he adopted me when they got married, that's how I got the name Clarke. The one in the picture, that's my biological father… at least I think it is, it looks like him, see?" she now rested a picture on the table as well. It showed a redheaded man holding what she guessed was a one-year-old Chloe.

"Now I see where you get it," Sophie smiled, pointing from Chloe to the picture.

"Looks like him, right? I mean he's about fifteen years older now, but…" Sophie compared the pictures.

"Yeah, could be."

"He left not long after that picture was taken, and I never saw him again. My mother acts like he never existed, and she won't talk about him. Then a few months ago, I saw that picture and I knew… he was here, in New York."

"So you came looking for him?"

"I thought if I found him, it would explain everything," she breathed, shaking her head. "My parents are nothing like me. I talk to them about music, and wanting to sing on Broadway stages, and they look at me like, yeah, they love me, and they see it's what I love, but they don't really get it… I don't know what my father's like, but I have to think I had to get it from someone, somewhere, why not from him. Only way I could know for sure was if I found him. My parents, they wouldn't get it, so I decided I had to go for it. Packed up and came here, started looking for him…"

"Did you find him?" Sophie asked, feeling for her. Chloe shook her head.

"But then I ran into your mother, and after I talked to her, that's when I decided I just needed to go back home. I wasn't going to find him, and even then… he's the one who walked out on us. And my parents, they may not get me, but they love me. I could deal with that," she smiled. Sophie looked at her with a smile in return, then she decided something.

"Okay, go get dressed, I'm taking you somewhere."

They had left the house, and Sophie wouldn't tell her where they were going. The closer they got to the theater though, Chloe could guess, and she only grew giddier. The people there already knew Sophie, so they had let both girls through. Sophie signalled for Chloe to be quiet, and then they went through the door, up at the back, row upon row of seats leading down to a stage, on which Rachel was singing along with some of her cast. Chloe was properly in heaven as Sophie pulled her to sit with her in the back row.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you about my grandparents, you probably have all that information, and by the way I promise I don't find it weird at all," Sophie told her, voice kept low. "So yes, in my mother's case she did have some of 'that' in her blood, and I kind of do, too. But that's not who I am, and that's okay. Where you came from will only take you so far. You have to go the rest of the way on your own."

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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